Non-Cream - Is there a substitute?

[Seraphina]

In Spain and Italy the only cream we can ever buy has a stabiliser added, even though it is labelled 'fresh' and only has a short date. Even UHT cream has the same stuff. The trouble is that it makes the cream taste disgusting....completely unusable for strawbs and cream and even ruins a cup of nice coffee. It takes ten minutes with the Braun to whip it and even then it doesn't thicken properly. I think the point is that they don't eat 'cream cakes' or put cream onto desserts. It all goes into savoury dishes of one sort of another (I can't imagine why they would pay more for disgusting fresh cream than disgusting UHT cream since both are disgusting because of the additive!). We can buy really nice fresh milk -- full, half or zero fat.

My question is, can anyone suggest an alternative to fresh cream for strawbs, cakes, etc.? I accept that we won't be able to get a fresh cream flavour but is there something else? We can't easily buy tinned creams/milks, custard powder or Nightmare Topping. There used to be a very sweet patisserie cream loved by the French but I don't have any experience of making it.

Many thanks.

[kalniel]

Greek yogurt!

[Funkstar]

Crème fraîche?

[Seraphina]

Greek yogurt!

Can you thicken that up to make a cream eclair, for example?

[shaithis]

Found this, although I haven't tried it myself!

Cream is made from rich milk which should contain 6.0 percent fat. You can make cream at home if you have a hand blender or an electric beater. Beat the milk with a beater for 10 minutes in intervals....then the cream will separated on the top .You can remove this cream with a spoon.....continue this process to get more cream and keep it in the refrigerator.



So, if you can get any high fat milk, you should be able to make your own.

[Seraphina]

Crème fraîche?

We never see that in Spain or Italy though is is all over France, of course, and sour. OK on strawbs but you couldn't make a cream cake with it.

Most French fresh milk is part-rancid, by the way. The Government is trying to get people to use UHT to save the energy used in keeping fresh refrigerated. Gordon Brown was about to make the same decision in the UK last year, according to reports, and it was only after someone pointed out to him that this might not go down a bundle that he pulled-back. The EU has an agreed target of 80%-90% UHT within a decade to save energy and greenhouse gases. You have been warned.

[Theo]

You could try Quark, which is a soft cheese. Tastes like creamy yoghurt, has a bit of a mousse sort of texture.

[kalniel]

Can you thicken that up to make a cream eclair, for example?

Well it comes quite thick in the first place, but it doesn't go well with very sweet pastry, though it's great for strawberries and cake fillings etc.

[Funkstar]

We never see that in Spain or Italy though is is all over France, of course, and sour. OK on strawbs but you couldn't make a cream cake with it.

Fair point. Not a huge cream cake fan if i'm honest. Perfer either just chocolate as a desert/sweet or to load up on the savoury stuff anyway

I'll take a starter over a pudding when out for a mean most of the time. There are exceptions though

[Theo]

How about sweetened ricotta cheese? That'd be good for a cake..

[0iD]

Strawberries & Balsamic vinegar, or with mint sugar (add some mint leaves to a pestle & mortar & grind with sugar).
Or some fresh Mascarpone.

[Funkstar]

Strawberries & Balsamic vinegar, or with mint sugar (add some mint leaves to a pestle & mortar & grind with sugar).
Or some fresh Mascapone.

That mint sounds great.

And mmmmmm Mascarpone

[Seraphina]

That mint sounds great.

And mmmmmm Mascarpone

Thanks for the great ideas, guys. Will work through them later! I especially like the idea of a cream separator but at £500 odd it would be an EXPENSIVE cake. OTOH, we are looking at a smallholding in Limousin right now and would be in keeping. The mascarpone is worth playing with without delay...

[Zak33]

In my house, a Buckinghamshire Cream Tea (which is clearly a rip off of the Devonshire Cream Tea) uses Mascarpone instead of Clotted Cream.

Mascerpone is the cream ingredient of Tiramasu, and is as close to cream as you're likely to find.

I found in Spain that even the MILK tastes different to UK milk. I believe it's because the cows are more "battery" farmed indoors for milk and fed on different food to the grass that UK cows graze on. I have not seen a field full of cows in Spain, and yet milk is plentiful in cartons in shops.

[Funkstar]

However, UHT milk from Belgium doesn't taste (or small) nearly as bad as the UK stuff.

You get a lot of UHT milk offshore for tea and coffee so they don't need fridges all over the place.

[Seraphina]

However, UHT milk from Belgium doesn't taste (or small) nearly as bad as the UK stuff.

You get a lot of UHT milk offshore for tea and coffee so they don't need fridges all over the place.

Zak -- will get some mascarpone tomorrow.

Funkstar -- Spanish UHT milk is good, as is Spanish Mercodona fresh milk but Spanish fresh cream has that horrid taste. The nicest milk is Swiss with Austrian a close second and if you look online you'll see that the Swiss minimum standards are better than the norm elsewhere